Passport to Texas

Palo Duro Canyon, Lighthouse Peak.

Food Week: The First Thanksgiving Texas-Style Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Spanish Explorer Coronado and his expedition celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Palo Duro Canyon in May 1541—80 years before the Pilgrims.

And they celebrated by eating the wild game in the area: buffalo, wild fowl, and other things.

Jeff Murrah is an author and sixth generation Texan who writes extensively about Texas history.

They [Coronado’s expedition] had been traveling up into New Mexico and across Texas. When they finally made it to Texas, they had been in the Palo Duro Canyon area. And there had been some rough weather they had recently experienced. They had made it through that with the shelter of the canyon, and they wished to express thankfulness.

Murrah says there were 300 in the expedition and their Thanksgiving celebration took place over several days.

I like this Thanksgiving. Not only was it large, but I think it captures more the idea that many cultures contributed to. Because when you stick with the whole idea of the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving, you’re either a Pilgrim or an Indian. But here you’ve got Indians, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Italians, Scots, and Blacks in the party. You had people from many different backgrounds all coming together to give thanks.

Why do Pilgrims get all the credit for this feast day?

They did a better marketing campaign?

Happy Thanksgiving from Passport to Texas

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 12:00 am and is filed under Food, Food Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.